Fast fry steak meal

Excellent source of iron from even just the juices of beef if baby can't chew it enough to swallow. Great way to get baby to practice chewing and get some nutrients. You can make this for both adult and baby. I started offering steak when J was around 8 months old. You can offer it even sooner when baby has started BLW, for baby to suck the juices or mince it with liquids and veggies (eg cooked carrots, peas, apple) for baby to eat with a preloaded spoon.

Ingredients: 

4 Fast fry steak (thin, around 1/2 inch)

1 tsp Black pepper 

2 Onions, sliced

1 pint of Cherry tomatoes, sliced

4 cloves Garlic

Sauce ingredients: 

*4 Tbsp Soy sauce
6 Tbsp Honey
3 Tbsp Oyster sauce
2 Tbsp Chinese cooking wine or substitute with beef stock
6 Tbsp Water
1.5 tsp Ground black pepper

1 tbsp Cornstarch

Instructions:

1. Allow steak to warm to room temperature and season with black pepper. In the meantime, mix the sauce ingredients in a bowl, and then cut onions, tomatoes and garlic. Heat the pan, drizzle some oil, and cook the onions until softened. Add garlic, and tomatoes. Once cooked, set aside. (you can reserve some tomatoes for baby)
2. Heat pan over medium heat with oil, then add steaks to the pan. Don't overcrowd the pan with steaks, otherwise, it will just steam instead of getting a good sear. Cook 2-3 minutes per side. Allow the steak to rest. 
3. In the meantime, return the veggies to the pan, stir the sauce in the bowl to remix the cornstarch that's settled to the bottom, then add the sauce to the pan. The sauce should warm up and thicken up. 
4. For baby, reserve 2 oz of meat and tomatoes without the sauce. Remember to offer fruit high in vitamin C (eg. kiwi, orange, baked apple) to help with absorption of iron. For adults, plate the steak and pour the veggie and sauce on top. Serve with rice or potatoes. 

*(Still tweeking recipe; originally 6 tbsp soy sauce and it was too salty)

To serve to baby: 

For beginner eaters, cut the steak into finger sized pieces so that the baby could pick up the piece of steak in the palm and gnaw and suck the juices. You could also put the steak, onions and tomatoes, and rice in a manual mincer/grinder, and mince it all together. Preload the spoon with the minced food (it should stick to the spoon) and pass the spoon to baby to put in the mouth. (see note below)**

For more intermediate eaters, cut the steak into bite sized pieces, and squish each piece between your fingers about 5 times to help "chew" the meat a bit for baby to chew. You can roll the rice into balls of 1-2cm wide and allow baby to pick up and release into the mouth. We prefer using Thai jasmine rice, or Japanese short grain rice mixed with brown rice (50/50).

**If baby has trouble getting the food off the spoon, preload the spoon, hold it upright with the food facing the baby. When the baby grabs the handle and puts the spoon into the mouth, the food will be facing down and the back of the spoon will be facing up so that the tongue could scrap the food off the spoon easily (that's why it's important that the mince is moist enough to stick to the spoon)